Kerry’s account has been “limited”, as Paypal put it, but for all intents and purposes it is closed. She cannot withdraw funds nor even check her transaction history.

I’m sure some of my readers will think this is a reasonable action on the part of Paypal, but given the resolution of the Smashwords censorship incident this Spring it really is not.

After having been bludgeoned by half the internet (yours truly included), Paypal revised their policy on book censorship to exclude the text of the books. Paypal was only going to object to specific titles:

First and foremost, we are going to focus this policy only on e-books that contain potentially illegal images, not e-books that are limited to just text. The policy will prohibit use of PayPal for the sale of e-books that contain child pornography, or e-books with text and obscene images of rape, bestiality or incest (as defined by the U.S. legal standard for obscenity: material that appeals to the prurient interest, depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value).

If you look at the cover image again, you will probably agree that Amelia’s book is allowed under Paypal’s new policy. I don’t think I was stretching things by writing that it was a relatively tame image; I have seen more explicit imagery on M/F romance novels.

So what we have here is a book with a cover which the author is allowed to sell under Paypal’s policy while at the same time the author is not allowed to pay the cover artist.

Yes, it is that bizarre.

I have reached out to Paypal for comment, but apparently no one is watching the Facebook page or reading emails, and Anuj Nayar, the Director of Communications at PayPal, does not read his email on the weekends. More fool him.

TBH, I think we’re looking at a mistake on the part of Paypal. There is a clear contradiction between the previously stated policy and the account closure.

But in the absence of a statement from Paypal I can only assume that this is going to be yet another incident where the Internet is going to have to beat up on Paypal until they back down.

Someone pass me a torch.

Update: Paypal restored Kerry’s account. While I still have not heard anything from Paypal (and she was told the account closure was permanent), it seems that Paypal does have someone watching news blogs on the weekend.

If we reduce No votes from Yes Votes , Modi came down to 6th Position now Narendra Modi recieved More No Votes than Yes votes today is last day of poll, April 6th 2012.

Anonymous is a world wide community currently acting against SOPA/PIPA/ACTA, All their acts were based on peer pressure
They have not ” HACKED” the time webiste and poll as beinga Alleged by Narendra Modi supporter.

Anonymous isn’t a person. It’s not even a group of people in any well-defined sense. But if you tick off the thin-skinned, ad hoc network of hackers who collaborate under the Anonymous moniker, get ready for trouble. Members have reportedly attacked sites ranging from the Vatican’s to those of major companies such as PayPal and Sony; they apparently released 75,000 credit-card numbers belonging to customers of research firm Stratfor. Arrests of dozens of suspected participants in multiple countries haven’t shut down the leaderless organization.

Get your r democratic clickin finger going, Time to tell the old mainstream, who will be the new mainstream.